MEETING COMPETITION IN FOREIGN MARKETS

International Relations/Trade,

Cape Cod Evening

pages 95-9

North Dakota--Dealing with Dubious Contracts for Conveying Land Statute of Limitations or Reformation for Mutual Mistake?

The topic of this Article arose from a recent opinion by the North Dakota Supreme Court: Western Energy Corporation v. Stauffer. The case dealt with how the law handles changes in ownership of property, specifically land including underlying mineral interests, that come into dispute after substantial periods of time have passed, resulting in a need for the parties involved in the dispute to turn to the courts for a solution. The passing of a substantial amount of time often becomes the issue in resolving the dispute in these types of situations. The opening paragraph in the Court’s opinion in Western Energy states that “Western Energy appealed from a district court judgment finding its quiet title action pertaining to claimed mineral interests to be barred by applicable statutes of limitation and laches.” Statutes of limitation are fairly straightforward and are discussed below as they are the determinative factor in the case. However, the specific goal here is to examine several of the approaches that can be taken in this kind of situation and how the issue is ultimately resolved. Raising the claim of “laches” is a rather vague concept, but it appears in some of these cases and has an interesting background, as discussed in the last part of this Article. The background of the case in question will be laid out first followed by the discussion of several traditional methodologies for resolving cases of this kind, generally, in the context of other court cases

An integrated approach to microalgae biomass generation and processing

Liquid combustible fossil fuel empowers global society, yet is a non-renewable entity with time-constrained limits to supply. Advanced generation biofuel derived from microalgae could feasibly yield more than conventional biofuel crops, utilise non-agricultural land or the sea and remediate atmospheric carbon dioxide and anthropogenic waste. However, technical and economical limits have so far prevented the successful implementation of microalgae biofuels. This thesis exemplifies how apparently disconnected technologies are able to become united in their provision for the growth and processing of microalgae. In so doing, it employs unique experimental methodology which unites inter- disciplinary themes with the proposition to cultivate and process microalgae biomass in a manner which has never been done before. The novelty of this endeavour presents a unique set of challenges, reasoning and results with implications for future creative research and investigation. The philosophical approach to conception and achievement of the laboratory work intercedes with entirely new methodology. Selected examples of such methodology follow. In chapter 3, a newly developed bio-composite gel disk was processed aligning a new design of apparatus for a geotextile puncture resistance test. In chapter 3, a novel formulation for harvesting microalgae is described. In chapter 5, a modified methodology of the preceding chapter is used to investigate seawater ion remediation via ionic and density phase separation. Chapter 6 integrates waste components from 5 different industries, namely dairy farming, anaerobic digestion, brewing, steel slag aggregates and coal power combustion with no previously known unification of such technologies in scientific literature. Chapter 7 assesses the lipid quality of biomass harvested by the novel formulation of chapter 3, before and after exposure to hydrothermal liquefaction. Chapter 8 extrapolates findings from the thesis to define an economic appraisal and suggest a cost saving process

Increased plasma levels of metalloproteinase-9 are associated with abdominal aortic aneurysms

AbstractPurpose: Previous investigators have identified disease-specific elevations of metalloelastase-9 (MMP-9) in aneurysm tissue biopsies. We hypothesized that circulating MMP-9 might also be elevated in patients with aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to compare plasma and aortic tissue MMP-9 levels in patients with infrarenal aneurysms (AAAs), patients with symptomatic aortoiliac occlusive disease (AOD), and healthy patients. Methods: A sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure plasma MMP-9 in patients with AAA (n = 22; mean age, 72.7 years), with AOD (n = 9; mean age, 60.5 years), and without disease (n = 8; mean age, 35.3 years). The MMP-9 levels also were measured in 48-hour supernatants of organ culture tissue explants from patients with AAA (n = 10; mean age, 66.2 years) and AOD (n = 5; mean age, 50.4 years) and organ donors (n = 7; mean age, 48.1 years). The results were reported as the mean ± the standard error of the mean and analyzed with analysis of variance with multivariate regression. Results: The plasma MMP-9 levels were significantly higher in the patients with AAA (85.66 ng/mL ± 11.64) than in the patients with AOD (25.75 ng/mL ± 4.159; P < .001) or the healthy patients (13.16 ng/mL ± 1.94; P < .001). No significant difference in plasma MMP-9 levels between patients with AOD and healthy patients was identified. The patients with multiple aneurysms had significantly higher levels of plasma MMP-9 than did the patients with an isolated AAA (134.68 ng/mL ± 17.5 vs 71.03 ng/mL ± 10.7; P < .04). In organ culture, AAA and AOD tissue explants produced significantly higher levels of MMP-9 (3218.5 ng/gm ± 1115.2 and 1283.1 ng/gm ± 310.6 aortic tissue) than did disease-free explants (6.14 ng/gm ± 2.3 aortic tissue; P < .0001). No significant difference in MMP-9 production between AAA and AOD explants was identified. Conclusion: Plasma MMP-9 levels are significantly higher in patients with AAA than in patients with AOD or in healthy volunteers. The patients with multiple aneurysms have higher levels than those patients with an isolated AAA. Organ culture studies suggest that diseased aortic tissue is the source of MMP-9. (J Vasc Surg 1999;29:122-9.

Service Learning for Sustainability: A Tale of Two Projects

AbstractService learning is a mechanism used in engineering and construction curricula as a means of engaging students in interesting and complex problems that benefit the community while providing an opportunity to develop competencies that will be essential in professional practice. Such projects are particularly effective in exposing students to issues otherwise difficult to teach in a classroom setting, including critical resource constraints and tactics to overcome them, tradeoffs among possible solution alternatives, integration of systems, and the human and organizational challenges of design and implementation. However, the risks and challenges involved in integrating these projects within classes and managing student involvement lead them to be underutilized in many curricula. This paper describes experiences with two separate community-based service learning projects undertaken as part of a joint undergraduate-graduate class on sustainable facility systems at Virginia Tech. While projects were initially designed to be of similar scope and difficulty, the outcomes were dramatically different from a project management and implementation standpoint, and learning outcomes for students were also different. Lessons learned are presented for the benefit of others considering expanded service learning as part of coursework on sustainability in engineering and construction curricula

Turf for erosion and sediment control - construction of an Australian national demonstration facility

Turfgrass has been found to be an effective measure for the control of soil erosion and also for the capture of sediment. Previous research quantifying the capability of turfgrass for this purpose was undertaken and communicated, but did not lead to a substantial increase in market share for erosion control by turfgrass in Australia. The Australian turfgrass production industry has therefore invested substantial resources into the design, construction and operation of a new national Erosion and Sediment Control Demonstration Facility at Cleveland, Queensland, as a technical extension tool. The facility has been designed to demonstrate turf as an erosion control and sediment capture measure compared to other products available on the market including silt fencing, silt socks, coir logs and hydro-seeding. This is the only such facility in Australia and has been met with substantial enthusiasm by the turf and erosion industries as well as local and state government representatives. The construction of this facility presented a number of challenges (described in this paper), and is now becoming a critical extension tool for the turfgrass industry to build the erosion control market share for natural turf